A thorough description and perspective of Fermi level engineering of oxide ceramics in the context of SFB 1548 FLAIR was selected as feature article of the Journal of Electroceramics (DOI:10.1007/s10832-023-00324-y). This paper lays out why the Fermi level can be taken as a measure of the charge compensation mechanism and with that predict materials properties in dependence of composition and processing. It further encompasses how this relationship aids in materials design for a variety of application in which oxide ceramics are crucial.

To this end, the fundamentals of the correlation of defect properties, charge compensation and processing to the Fermi level, engineering of the latter and the effects of interfaces on energetics are presented.